Emily Austin's unforgettable first novel, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, stars an unusual hero: Gilda is profoundly socially awkward, anxious, depressed and perhaps too kind for her own good.
The story begins with a car wreck, when Gilda, who narrates, is struck from behind by a beige van. When she arrives at the emergency room (having driven herself, with a broken arm, because "I do not like to be a spectacle"), she is told, "You are a lot calmer than you usually are when you come in here." Readers begin to understand that Gilda is a little odd.
From this misfortune, she follows an ad for free counseling and is dismayed to find that it is being offered at a Catholic church (Gilda is an atheist). She is too polite to disappoint the priest who thinks she's there for a job interview, and finds herself working as the church's new receptionist--therefore living a double life, posing as a Catholic and sort-of-dating a parishioner's abhorrent brother-in-law (Gilda is a lesbian). While keeping up this increasingly complicated act, she also finds time to worry about her brother (drinking too much) and a missing neighborhood cat, among countless other stressors; topping that list may be the fate of the church's previous receptionist, Grace, who died under suspicious circumstances. Almost without meaning to, Gilda begins investigating Grace's death, and because she doesn't have the heart to break bad news, posing as Grace in e-mails to the woman's old friend. What could go wrong?
Austin's debut is disarmingly sweet even in its grimness. --Julia Kastner, librarian and blogger at pagesofjulia